J. Craig Thorpe (American, B. 1948) "Montana Locomotive" Signed lower right. Original Oil painting on Paper. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original painting which appeared on the Fleetwood Legendary Locomotives of the 50 States Montana Commemorative Cover postmarked September 8, 1994. "The Wonderland Route to the Pacific Coast." That is how the Northern Pacific Railroad was touted on travel posters during its early days. The completion of this scenic line was witnessed by an estimated crowd of three thousand spectators on September 8, 1883, in Gold Creek, Montana. A bevy of cowboys, miners, soldiers, Indians and dignitaries, including former President Ulysses S. Grant and famed editors Joseph Pulitzer and Carl Schurz, were among those who gathered for this historic moment in railroad history. Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific (NP), opened the ceremony by eloquently stating that "long and hard tests of the power of human ingenuity and endurance in a mighty struggle of mechanical and manual forces against the direct obstacles of primitive nature" were behind the completion of this new rail link. After brief addresses by the Secretary of the Interior, the former president of the NP and Ulysses S. Grant, the final thousand feet of track was quickly laid by 300 workers. The last spike, the exact one that had been used when the first rails were laid at Carlton, Minnesota, 13 years earlier, was driven in by an NP passenger agent, Grant and Villard. This final act marked the completion of America's first northern through-route and the nation's second transcontinental railroad. The colorful No. 154 -- a typical Baldwin 4-4-0 type engine of the era -- was one of four locomotives to power trams to the ceremony. Image Size: 14 x 12 in. Overall Size: 18 x 15 in. Unframed. (B14857)